Ibogaine is an alkaloid, a chemical found generally within plants.  The principal source of ibogaine is Tabernanthe iboga found in the West African rain forests.  While most botanists claim and most cultivated T. iboga is not more than 2 meters in height or so, there are still untouched iboga reaching a height of 6 or even 8 meters.  Chances are however, most persons will not find anything above the 2 or 3 meter height.  The ibogaine is concentrated in the bark of the root.  It can be taken as root bark or most persons out of
Africa probably prefer it in an extracted form either as the base alkaloid or the hydrochloride salt.  Ibogaine's identification was accomplished by the French and early research continuing through the 1950s was principally accomplished by French researchers.

Most of the current interest concerning ibogaine relates to its antiaddictive affects that include concurrent elimination of narcotic withdrawal signs and elimination of drug craving.  The elimination of withdrawal is seen in all but, a minor percentage of persons who take ibogaine and even in those persons who exhibit some withdrawal signs they are minor.  Elimination of drug craving is more transient and a single dose of ibogaine my precipitate such affects for anywhere from 1 to 3 months in most persons.  Multiple treatments with ibogaine are more effective than a single treatment.  How far apart treatments should be taken is very dependent on the individual's response to ibogaine.

The immediate affects of a single dose of ibogaine can last for a few days. These are distinct from the elimination of withdrawal that is a permanent affect. These affects of the ibogaine experience usually are of two or three distinct phases.  The first phase, if it is evident, consists of about 3 to 4 hours of visual dream-like material.  The second phase is an intellectual evaluation sometimes described as deep or massive thinking that is a review of key issues faced by the individual and the third stage may last twenty or more hours and consists of residual stimulation during which you will be kept awake.  Some persons appear not to experience the dream-like part of the  experience.

Ibogaine is a controlled substance in the United States, Switzerland and Belgium.  The only Ministry of Health that has approved the therapeutic use of ibogaine to treat addiction is the Ministry of Health in the Republic of Panama where hospital administered treatments are allowed.  The downside is they are very costly at about $15,000.00.  There was the possibility that thousands of persons might have been treated with ibogaine but, the University of Miami stopped FDA approved studies to develop competing
products and all parties are now in Federal Court.  The endpoint is that people who need ibogaine don't have it.  The upside is that as always, drug users and their friends have established underground railways to get drug users to ibogaine or ibogaine to drug users.  These groups have developed from the U.K. to Eastern Europe and there are some reports of such groups in the U.S.

While U.S. government doctors administered ibogaine in experiments at the Addiction Research Center at the Federal Narcotics Hospital in Lexington, KY to former black morphine addicts in the 1950s, all records except a single letter have disappeared apparently into the CIA or Department of Defense record system.  It is not unlikely that the CIA financed research discovered ibogaine's anti-addictive affects in the mid to late 1950s and that was the end of that.  Enough said.

That National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) involved itself with preclinical (animal) model research with ibogaine with significant efforts from 1990 through 1995 and then based on consultants from the pharmaceutical industry's perceptions, determined not enter into clinical or human research. Nothing new there. Individual researchers, however, using NIDA grants have demonstrated in animal model research, duplicating addict self-help anecdotal reports, all of the claimed affects of ibogaine:

1.  That it will block narcotic withdrawal.
2.  That it will reduce narcotic use.
3.  That it will reduce stimulant use.
4.  That it will reduced alcohol use and,
5.  That it will reduce nicotine use.

A 1999, scientific review of ibogaine can be found at:
<http://www.ibogaine.org/alkaloids.html>

An excellent historical review by the late Dr. Robert Goutarel may be read at:
<http://www.ibogaine.org/goutarel.html> French and English versions available.

A recent article published in the UK on addict experiences called "The
Dreaming" can be found at: <http://www.ibogaine.co.uk/platt.htm>

A major scientific conference will be held at New York University Medical
Center in November of 1999.  Information on the conference can be found at:
<http://www.med.nyu.edu/Psych/ibogaineconf/>

Information on the religious use in African can be found at:
http://www.Ibogaine.desk.nl/fernandez.html
http://www.ibogaine.org/barabe.html

An Ibogaine list has been established.  The list will involve itself in the discussion of all aspects of this experimental anti-addictive and psychotherapeutic medication,  including that of persons treated, pharmacology, the African experience in religion and medicine, neuroscience, clinical reports, behavioral pharmacology, psychiatry, Ibogaine self-help groups and more.

To join the list see instructions below:

> >send email to listproc@calyx.net with the subject blank and >with the body
> >containing nothing but the following four words:
>
> >subscribe ibogaine <firstname> <lastname>

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